Om Sri Vishnupad Ashtottara Shata Sri Sri Bhakti Dayita Madhava Goswami Maharaj the Absolute Counterpart of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna and His Grace Incarnate; I pray for His causeless mercy to bestow me the strength to sing the glories of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna, His Holy Name, Form, attributes, transcendental realm and personal associates, and bestow me exclusive devotion, one-pointed devotion to His lotus feet. I pay my innumerable prostrated obeisances to the Lotus feet of my most revered śikṣā gurus and pray for their causeless mercy and grace to give me strength to sing the glories of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna and His personal associates, to purify my mind and to get exclusive one-pointed devotion to Supreme Lord Sree Krishna. I give my due respects to all who are present here.

Now by the grace of Sri Guru Gauranga Radhanayananath Jiu we have got the opportunity to observe the Purushottam-vrata at Kolkata Math under the lotus feet of the deities installed by our Gurudev Sri Guru Gauranga Radhanayananath Jiu. After a long time, I have got this opportunity to observe this vow in Kolkata Math. Purushottam-vrata is for one month. After thirty-two months, we get one lunar (intercalary) month to harmonize the solar year with the calendar (lunar year). The karma-kāṇḍīs, (smārtas) think this additional month to be inauspicious. They do not prescribe any kind of holy ritualistic performance in this month, but it is the order of the Supreme Lord Himself in the Brihad-naradiya Purana to honour Purushottam month. The Lord says, “This month is equal to Me.” Therefore, do not spoil your time.

If you think this month to be inauspicious, that we should not try to do any good work, then you commit sinful acts. What will go with you at the time of death? You will take birth according to the thoughts you have at the time of death. While having evil thoughts when you leave the body, you will go to the births of beasts, birds or some other abominable state. What benefit will you get? You should not spoil any time.

By observing Purushottam-vrata, we have to take this in mind that I shall spend my whole life for the service of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. After this observance of Purushottam-vrata, we shall now wait for another thirty-two months (for the next observance). But this thinking is not good. You must think properly when you observe this, and remember the purpose. You may continue (to worship Krishna) not only throughout this life, but also after death wherever you shall go. Supreme Lord is eternal, and the real self is eternal. Relation between Supreme Lord and the real self is eternal. The devotion will go with you, for it is eternal whatever vow you observe you should take this throughout the entire life. You should not end it.

We Cannot Get the Lord by Our Own Endeavors

We are going through the prayers of Brahma to Krishna. Brahma, who is the creator of all the living beings of this world, Brahman he could not understand Krishna. Krishna was before him and Krishna's personal associates were there, the transcendental realm Vrindavan was there, everything was there but he thought this person was an ordinary cowherd boy, a poor person, who was tending the calves with His friends who were also poor. He could not recognize the truth. When you try to recognize Lord by your own endeavor we shall see like this.

When Narasingha Bhagavan wonderfully appeared from the pillar, not accepting any parents. In the worldly sense, Hiranyakashipu was very elevated person. He performed immense penance. He got the boon from Brahma that made him almost immortal. He had enough knowledge, but he wanted to know by his own endeavor. Do you know what he saw? A wonderful beast, half man, half lion. Yet he wanted to fight and kill Him. Prahlad was there in the same place, and he saw absolute good as the Supreme Lord appeared. He did not see any horrible figure. By the remembrance of Narasingha Deva, you can be rescued from this horrible worldly bondage and enjoyment. Prahlad saw like that with his spiritual devotional eyes. When we submit to Supreme Lord unconditionally, and we try to serve Him sincerely from the core of the heart, He is equal to all. He graced Prahlad, Dhruva, and Ambarish Maharaj. Will He not grace others?

You Cannot See The Supreme Lord by Your Own Will

In actuality, from the core of the heart, we do not want Krishna, we want something else. God is residing in the heart; we cannot deceive Him. What we are thinking, He is seeing everything. Without His knowledge, we cannot do anything. Lord does not give value to the words that you say, but the thoughts that you are thinking.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has taught us in His Sikshastaka that we go through during Kartik-vrata. This time we will observe it at Bhatinda, Punjab. We have got a big Math there. The devotees there are insisting on my going there. Alright, I shall get a chance of devotees of Punjab there. I shall try to go there if Supreme Lord wills. Everything depends upon His desire. I have got the desire to go there. That also I cannot do it by my own will. That "will" is to be satisfied, fulfilled by Krishna.

Krishna is controlling everything, karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana. You can do bad and good deeds, but the fruits are controlled by Supreme Lord. You cannot get by your own will. If He gives the fruit to me, I shall go there and get the opportunity of devotees of North India there.

Our Level of Surrender is Determined by the Fruit

Brahma created this universe by his own endeavor. Of course, by the imparted power of Supreme Lord, he has got this sort of ego that 'I am the creator.' With that ego he tried examining Krishna. First, he rejected. Afterwards, when Krishna killed Aghasura, a great powerful demon, Brahma thought, “How this small cowherd boy can kill such a big powerful demon? Let me examine.” I won't go through the whole story, but then, as you know, he lifted all the cowherd boys and calves and kept them in the cave of Sumeru Mountain for one year.

After that when he came, he simultaneously saw the same cowherd boys here moving in Vrindavan with Krishna and others sleeping there. He was infatuated, enchanted, and bewildered. He thought, “Oh, I am infatuating the whole world, and I am being infatuated by Him. Then He must be my master.” He then took absolute shelter in Him.

How can we understand whether we have taken absolute shelter or not? What is the proof? You can understand by the fruit. I can make a prostrated obeisance to Supreme Lord externally, get on the ground to Krishna, Gauranga, Radha Krishna and others, Gurudeva, Vaishnavas, but not from the core of the heart. If not from the core, then you will not get actual fruit. By the fruit you can understand whether you have taken shelter or not. Brahma took absolute shelter from the core of the heart. He cannot be infatuated we say.

Our paramparā, preceptorial channel is coming from Krishna, Brahma etc. But why wasn't this written by Vedavyasa Muni in Bhagavat? Does He not know that Brahma cannot be infatuated? We know more than him. Intentionally he does not mention because the gravity of the subject will be lost. You have to take the teachings from this. You know Arjuna cannot be infatuated. Who is Arjuna? Arjuna is friends with Krishna. Through him, Krishna is giving the teachings. There we have to give the importance. We take the teachings from Brahma. Everybody knows this.

Taking Absolute Shelter, All is Revealed

There are some ordinary people, novice, neophytes, they misunderstand. Brahma took absolute shelter, and he got the grace of Krishna immediately. He saw that this was no ordinary cowherd boy was the cause of all causes, the cause of infinite opulences, and that He is the sweetest, most holy, and highest form of God, the Lord of all Lords.

naumīḍya te 'bhra-vapuṣe taḍid-ambarāya
guñjāvataṁsa-paripiccha-lasan-mukhāya
vanya-sraje kavala-vetra-viṣāṇa-veṇu-
lakṣma-śriye mṛdu-pade paśupāṅgajāya
(Srimad Bhagavat 10.14.1)

You have already heard about this.

When Brahma fainted on seeing this, do you know what Krishna did? He showed all the cowherd boys and calves are all four-armed Narayana, with śaṅkha cakra gadā padma dhāri—conch shell, disc, mace and lotus hands, he was astonished. All these calves, these cowherd boys are my object of worship Vasudeva, what is this? He recognized his object of worship and fell down weeping.

Again, Krishna showed there are no cowherd boys, no calves, only Krishna standing with left hand palm yogurt and rice and Krishna standing while eating. This is not the Vedic instruction. First Brahma rejected Krishna, thinking that he did not know the teachings of scriptures. But then saw Krishna with His left palm yogurt and rice mixture, cane and horn under the left hand armpit and flute inserted inside the waist, standing with infinite Vasudeva murtis are coming not only one, but thousands, then he knew. “Oh! He is the cause of all causes. I committed great offense by lifting the cowherd boys when they had just started eating. They are the favorable associates of my most revered object of worship, and I lifted them away. I committed great offense, and I don't know whether Krishna will forgive me or not.” In that way he was submitting his prayer, repenting.

We are holding discourses here now in the Sankirtan Bhavan, ground floor. By the desire of the Supreme Lord that I should speak something with broken English to you. I have no good hold over English. Sometimes I do not find words to express, and my pronunciation is like Indian pronunciation. It is difficult for you to understand, yet it is the desire of the Supreme Lord that I should speak, for that reason, for my own benefit.

Narada Wants to See Māyā

So, here Brahma is infatuated. Even Narada was infatuated. In our preceptorial channel we remember Narada after Brahma. In Brahma-vaivarta Purana, you will find the history. I don't want to say in detail, but when Narada was praying to Krishna and he insisted, “By Your external potency with primal qualities of satva, rajo and tamo guṇa, the worldly people of the universe are deluded. Enveloped by illusory energy, they are getting immense suffering from threefold afflictions passing through eighty-four lakh births, eighty lakhs and after that four lakh human births. I want to feel that, what sort of suffering all these living beings are getting. I want to experience it. Kindly please fulfill my desire.” Then What?

Krishna said, “By distributing Harinam, you are rescuing the enslaved jivas and conditioned souls of the world. What is the use of seeing māyā, what benefit you will get?” “No, No”, said Brahma, “I want to feel what sort of suffering they are getting. I cannot say I am Your devotee. You fulfill the desires of a devotee. If I have done devotion to You, kindly fulfill my desire”, Brahma insisted, expressing doggedness, “Please show me Your māyā.”

Then Krishna thought, “You want to see it? All right.” Once Krishna was with Narada and some other persons, moving in Swetadwipa and after talking, talking, talking, Krishna overwhelmed all these persons and they became Brahmin. Narada has no veena (heptachord) in his hand and Krishna had no flute. All became Brahmin. Nobody could recognize Narada is here and Krishna is here. They became ordinary Brahmin.

Nothing is impossible for Krishna; everything He can do. Others are thinking some Brahmins are going. Nobody could know that they are Krishna and Narada. Ultimately, they became the guest of one vaiśya. In varṇāśrama, vaiśya-varṇa is one of the castes who help the country by earning money. In that vaiśya house, after Krishna was being served by the vaiśya (named Virabhadra) blessed him, saying, “You will get everything, all wealth, and there will be no want in your house.” After that they went to a Brahmin also. Narada was very particular although, he was in a Brahmin body, he was very careful on how Krishna would show His bewildering deluding potency to me, “I should see.”

Krishna thought about what to do. To a pure devotee to show māyā is difficult. Then do you know what He did? He came to the world from Swetadwipa. Everything is within Him. If He desires, He can annihilate and destroy infinite Brahmandas. If He desires, He can create in a moment anything. Nothing is impossible for Him. He is absolutely omnipotent. When Krishna could dance between two gopis, among millions and millions of gopis, Krishna could not remain in all the Brahmandas? Is this the conception of Supreme Lord? Supreme Lord is omnipotent, all powerful. Whatever He can do. Nothing is impossible for Him.

He went to the world and there ultimately Narada wanted to take ablution in a very beautiful sacred lake, or sarovar as we say. This sarovar was made by Vishwakarma, the heavenly architect. When Narada took a dip, Krishna and all the Brahmins disappeared. Narada emerged from the lake that became an ocean as a very beautiful girl and a king came there and saw him. Taladwaja Maharaj came with army. Now Krishna's māyā enveloped Narada and he was asking the king to rescue him. So long he was believing Krishna as the only rescuer, now he wanted to be rescued by a King. He forgot Krishna.

Whenever we shall forget Krishna, then māyā, illusory energy, will come automatically. He was taken by the King and taken to his kingdom. He became a queen and got all the wealth there. After ten years, he got fifty very beautiful children, and he was engaged in looking after those children fully. The king had a beautiful Radha Krishna temple. The priests and servitors of the temple came to the queen.

“Now the holy birth advent anniversary of Krishna will be celebrated. You should come”, they said.

“I have got no time”, the Queen said. “I have got so much duty to do, fifty children. If you want something, take something and go.”

Narada had no time to participate in birthday of Krishna. In the form of queen he said, “No, I cannot.” After that when the children grew up, they became small kings under Taladwaja Maharaj and all had very pompous marriages. After daughters-in-law came, then trouble started and the parents, the King and queen were disturbed. Afterwards, the sons were all killed by mutual fighting and the queen was tremendously grief stricken. She could not take food because of this and became lean and weak, always weeping. At that time Krishna came there as Brahmin. She made obeisances to the Brahmin.

The Brahmin asked, “You are all alright, okay?”

She replied, “No, No, our everything is lost, our fifty children were killed, God is not gracious to us.”

Then the Brahmin tried to pacify her, saying, “You see, by the desire of the Supreme Lord, you got fifty children and when Supreme Lord wants them back, He takes them. Fighting is only instrumental. By fighting, disease, death is inevitable.”

jātasya hi dhruvo mṛtyur
dhruvaṁ janma mṛtasya ca
tasmād aparihārye 'rthe
na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 2.27)

“That which is born will die, that which is produced, will be destroyed. Why are you mourning?”

Then Krishna said, “All your sons will be satisfied. They will have good life. You cannot get them back. Their bodies have been burnt.” In Sanatana Dharma, the traditional system is to burn the bodies at the funeral cremation ground. Krishna continued, “For that reason, you will not get them back. Why are you mourning? I shall make arrangements."

She responded, "Whatever you do, you are a brahmin, do but I want to die, die, die, I do not want to go there and take dip."

She took a dip in the lake and came out as Narada. He saw Krishna before and felt very much perplexed.

Krishna asked, “What did you see?”

“What am I seeing? What did I see? It is very shameful. I cannot say it.”

“Why not?”

“It's below my dignity. My body is changed, I became a girl, some king took me, I became queen, wife, so many children, afterwards they grew up, after marriage they were fighting, killed, and I was weeping, weeping. What is this I saw?”

“This is māyā.” Krishna asked, “You want to see this?” and Narada said, “No, no no! I never want to see this.” Because whenever we remember Krishna, māyā immediately goes and when we forget Krishna we depend on these worldly things.